After the Trinamool Congress won 29 seats in West Bengal, while the BJP won 12, significantly down from its 2019 tally of 18 seats, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today expressed her happiness with the BJP not getting a simple majority in the Lok Sabha elections and called for the resignations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on moral grounds.
“Modi did not get the single largest majority, he should resign because he claimed he would get more than 400 seats. Amit Shah should also resign on moral grounds after today’s results,” Mamata said in an address to the media. “Now the BJP will have to beg the Telugu Desam party and Nitish Kumar to form the Government. I know them very well. They won’t break INDIA.”
Of the 42 seats in Bengal, according to the Election Commission, till the time of reporting, the Trinamool Congress is looking to win 29 seats (3 wins, 26 leads), while the BJP was leading in 12 and the Congress in one.
“India has won and Modi has lost. They have lost in Ayodhya too. His (Modi’s) margin has come down. Pride is not good for anyone. I want to bow my head before the people. It is the people’s credit,” said Mamata.
While extending her support for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, Mamata said: “I don’t want anything. The States should get the funds that are due to them. The projects that have been stalled should be started. Misuse of Central agencies and the judiciary should be stopped,” she said. “Now if they try to bulldoze laws, I.N.D.I.A. will push back,” she said.
Over the last 10 years, Mamata Banerjee and the Narendra Modi-led Centre have been at loggerheads over the disbursement of funds from the Centre and the court-monitored probes initiated against a section of the Trinamool leaders over corruption charges.
Mamata said she was happy the BJP did not get a simple majority despite committing so many excesses in the last 10 years of Modi’s rule.
“They have committed the most atrocities on us in the last 10 years. CBI, ED, Income Tax, BJP’s Home Ministry all were unleashed. When I saw the exit poll results, I asked myself am I losing confidence? I have been on the streets for two months. I did not see the exit polls reflected in the eyes of the people,” Mamata said.
Mamata Banerjee said that she had congratulated leaders of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc partners like Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and had also sent a congratulatory message to Rahul Gandhi.
Though Mamata did not say a word against the Congress high command, she accused the State Congress of spoiling the Trinamool’s apple cart in some of the seats.
“Four or five seats we have lost because of the Congress. I am not blaming the Delhi Congress leaders, but I don’t believe they gave money to the Calcutta North candidate. BJP supplied money to them. The Berhampore Congress candidate was working for the BJP,” Mamata said without naming state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Calcutta North nominee Pradip Bhattacharya.
She reiterated that the CPM and the Congress in Bengal had the support of the BJP.
Mamata also alleged that the observers appointed by the BJP were playing a dirty game. “In Contai, our candidate had won but the observer gave the seat to the BJP. We have asked for recounting,” Mamata said.
